Azu's Akatsuki Tale: The Strangest Night
by KorinaK
Summary: Chapter Sixteen is finally up! Hope you readers out there enjoy the story.


Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters… etc, etc. If I did, then the Akatsuki would be more of a big player in the story!

This is where the story starts getting weird… (as if it wasn't weird already!)

Azu's Akatsuki Tale, Chapter 16: The Strangest Night

It was, in basic form, a sword like mine: Double-bladed, with a handle in the middle. But this one was infinitely more beautiful, more refined… The handle was made out of what looked to be black-lacquered ivory, carved so it fitted the hand just so. The blade on the left faced upwards, the edge of it a pitch-black, the main blade a cool blue-white that rivaled the moon for brilliance. The other blade, on the right was reversed: It faced down, with an edge of blue-white and the main blade a blackness rivaling obsidian. It was beautiful, perfect in form, curve, symmetry, design… Sharp as I knew it to be, I just wanted to run my hands along its sides, just to feel the smoothness and perfection of them.

But the strangest thing was that an odd, phosphorous light hung around it like an aura, sucking up moonlight and starlight around it. Eerie, rippling designs in the cold steel seemed to waver _just_ below the surface, like fish hiding in gloomy water. They weren't there if I looked directly at the sword, but if you glanced at it sideways, you could just catch a hint of them.

The whole thing was pretty disquieting, but I chose to accept it at face value: I'd lost my own sword, and somehow found another that was much like it in design. I'd also, earlier, felt a strange surge of power like nothing I'd ever known, and, I thought, would ever know.

Itachi's voice brought me back to the present situation. "I believe you should keep it. Sasori-san would have approved of that…"

Oh yes would Sasori be pissed if I came back without my handiest weapon. I picked it up, and almost dropped it again. It was _heavy_. Certainly it looked light enough. But I instantly wanted to keep it, because the handle just seemed to meld in to the shape of my hand. It was quite a bit longer than the other sword I had had, but I could get used to this, no problem.

"At least you won't have to get a new sheathe," said Itachi quietly. He was right. My sword sheathe was still hanging on my hip. I looked quickly inside it: Yup, the old leather clasp inside had snapped free.

As I slid it in to the sheathe, I fancied that it stuck to my hand a bit like ice cubes do to your hands when they're warm. But the sword slid neatly enough in, and the weird light around it went away.

Itachi lectured a bit as we headed back towards Konoha. "I'm sure I need not tell you this, Azumi-san, but you shouldn't let your guard down like that. You must have been asleep for a good few hours."

Since he _was_ right, and we both knew it, I didn't argue. "Yeah… sorry 'bout that. I swear it won't happen again."

He sighed, and then said, "On a different note. Where is the report I asked you to prepare on the Kyuubi child?"

"Oh…" I said with a little start. I'd completely forgotten about that. Searching around underneath my clothes, I found a tiny scroll. I tapped it, and the scroll enlarged to become a regular one. As Itachi took it, I said proudly, "I made sure to keep it with me at all times… I think that's what Leader-sama would want, right?"

Ignoring me, Itachi unrolled the scroll and gave it a scan through. I had made sure to be thorough: After all, he was one of my friends now. There were basic stats: Height, weight, age, etc, as well as ability/fighting stats, personality, and info on friends, background history, and some other things as well.

A few minutes later, he glanced at me. "That's a fair amount… But I'd expect nothing more of you."

Maybe I was being vain, but I read a compliment in to it: He also expected nothing less of me. And he'd not insulted it, which, with Itachi, could be considered a very good sign.

We'd reached the empty streets of Konoha. Itachi snapped the scroll back. "Deidara, Hidan, and I are staying in a hotel on the other side of town. Sakura-chan was kind enough, but we'd not wish to disturb her and you as well. Will you be all right from here… or should I come with you to make sure you don't fall asleep?"

I gave him a glare. "No, it's all right, thank you _very much._" He had a flicker of amusement in his eyes. Giving me a little bow, he calmly said, "Good night, Azumi-san."

The moon gleamed as I walked through Konoha towards Sakura's house. It had been a long night… a nice long nap would be nice.

I paused. There was something wrong with the streetlight next to me: It was flickering like crazy. Usually Konoha was always in perfect repair, being a rich city, but no city can be perfect. I respected the Hokage-sama enough for making Konoha such a wonderful place.

Walking on, I realized there was something niggering away at my mind. A realization that something was wrong, perhaps. I stopped.

The streetlight next to me was still flickering like crazy. But this was not the one I'd just passed. I whirled back quickly.

The other streetlight that had been turning on and off before was shining consistently and brightly now, oddly enough.

On a whim, I walked over to the streetlight next to me. Looking up at its weak glow, I touched the pole of it.

It turned off, so suddenly and completely that I gave a little gasp. Then I relaxed, gave a weak laugh. The other streetlights were still on… I was acting like a child, scared of the dark and what monsters it could bring.

But I couldn't ignore the fact that as I was walking, the lights next to me sputtered out, only to relight seconds after I'd passed. And now, as if things weren't insane enough, there were strange plinking sounds, faint and almost unheard, echoing around me.

With a sudden "plunk", my newly acquired sword fell out of its sheathe and on to the floor. I jumped slightly. It skittered far away in to a pool of light far away. "What the heck?" I muttered, chasing after it. "Come back here... Hey!"

I bent to pick it up. As I straightened up, I saw reflected in the glass of the shop window in front of me, a _something_. Jumping back, whirling around to face nothing, I heard an inhumane scream, shattering my eardrums and echoing like a banshee's cry through the empty, empty streets.

My heart was thumping faster and faster. The streetlights all started flickering in unison, flashing quickly, repeating the same pattern over and over again: Three short flashes, three long ones, three short ones. Again and again.

_S.O.S._ _Or, save our souls…_

That's when the things came. Adrenaline screaming through my veins, I turned to face the first one: The smell of rotting flesh, pieces of it flaking off, eyes dripping like egg yolks down deformed faces… I immediately decided this poor soul was the victim of a reanimation jutsu or some such thing.

The sword leapt in to my hands with lightning-speed, my instincts making me throw up the sword in to defensive mode and slicing straight through its heart. With a sickening moan, it fell at my feet. But that was only the beginning of it.

Wave after wave of these monsters came, every sickening demon dragged up from the pits of Hell that you could ever imagine. I saw moldy skin, smelt stinking breath, and felt the drag of clammy hands on my feet. Sounds like something out of a bad horror flick. Not so funny when you face them. Then, as if this party wasn't fun enough… Flicks of nasty flesh peeling off their hands, they initiated jutsu of all types.

Strangely, that's when I calmed down. It was, I quickly realized, a lot like facing Sasori's master 300 puppet jutsu. Experience had taught me eliminating them in big bunches was the best way to go.

I whipped out my weapon-summoning scrolls. Hundreds of cold metal needles, sticky with poison, sprang to my fingertips. I sent my chakra pouring through them, feeling each piece of metal bond to me. They shot out faster than bullets, going hundreds of kilometers a second, enough to pierce through vital points and come clear out the other end and go back to do more damage… Bodies fell in feet-thick stacks around me as my needles sewed their little patterns of death, nasty liquid like black thread coming out of them, lacing the ground. My army of death-sharp kunai knives aimed low, slicing through half-rotted tendons and bone…

But what really protected me was the sword. It was like I'd used it my entire life. The handle fit smoothly in my hand, and I could suddenly with ease perform moves I'd spent days trying to master before. Every single one of the thirty-six basic attack-and-defense moves and twenty-two specialized sword moves Sasori had painstakingly taught me over years was simple as taking a breath that night.

Suddenly, I could move faster and hit harder. My stamina soared… I wasn't even out of breath. It gave me a high like nothing else will ever. I felt like my feet were floating above the earth.

A water jutsu crashed towards me, hard enough to pulverize stone. Without even thinking, I sent a wall of glowing-hot metal the size of a soccer field up to block it. A large cloud of steam went up with a loud hiss, and it matched the hiss of my blade singing through the air.

Let me say this: Normally, I am _nothing_ exceptional when it comes to fighting. I had no idea what gave me this power, but whatever it was, I wasn't complaining.

My chakra ran wildly through the ground, lancing up brilliantly hot jets of liquid metal. One marble-sized gob of that stuff could burn clear through your chest: In one side, out the other, changing to stained black in between. They formed, I vaguely realized, sharp metal shards shaped somewhat like weapons.

I don't know when, but some time along this course it occurred to me –No duh!- to take out whoever was controlling these things. Peering through enemies and falling bodies, I searched for the place they were coming from.

_There…!_

I viscously elbowed aside attackers, pouring all my speed in to reaching the area on top of the closest building. I'd sensed a… well, a more _alive_ presence there.

_She hissed through her teeth. She certainly hadn't expected the girl to come charging straight for her…He had been right about that. But then, he was always right. She allowed herself a smile, thinking of him._

_Back to business. "Cover me, you idiot…" she hissed, and felt a massive chakra come sliding in front of her. Smiling, she called off her jutsu. It'd be interesting to see what happened next…_

I saw the white blur of another person a second before barreling in to… him? Her? I bounced back against corded muscle for a split moment… definitely a guy.

Peering at his face was like looking at Aoi. Every time I looked directly at him, his features blurred and fuzzed until I couldn't make them out. Giving it up and wondering at the same time where my previous zombie-attackers went, I faced this new opponent.

He had an enormous sword… sweeping it at me, I realized he was quite fast with it too. But not faster than me. I sent all my chakra sweeping to my legs and arms, giving me a demonic speed and… well, more strength than I normally would've had. Jumping on the sword, I rushed down its blade and raised both my arms, swinging the blade down like a bat.

It hit with a solid "thunk" in his shoulder. Ignoring the spurting blood, I aimed one-two-three roundhouse kicks at his face (My legs have far more strength than my arms, so I preferred kicks to punches). Then, just to be sure, I gave a hard thrust with my new sword, again, to his neck.

Something felt wrong. He leaped away, his shoulder healing bleeding like crazy. He grabbed my ankle and threw me off the roof. I hit the floor hard, and I thought: What strength he has… it's like fighting Kisame…! Strangely, it was my foot that hurt now from hitting him. It was like his skin was made out of… I don't know, concrete or something.

I heard a slightly high, sarcastic voice whine, "I didn't think she would be this much trouble… Damn that, look at me. That thing she has is damn shar-"

A female voice, this time. "Shut up. Let's go."

"Wait." I saw him raise his sword… he was aiming it at the building. He wanted to trap me.

My speed building, I came to a halt so abrupt that I almost fell over when I saw what I had done.

Remember earlier I said that those people I "killed" –no, defeated is a better word- were probably reanimated, like Sasori's puppets? I've never killed before. I never wanted to. The reason I could fight those… those things without feeling guilt is because I thought they were dead already.

How wrong I was. The smell wasn't of rotting flesh now; it was of real blood and real death. It wasn't black liquid staining the floor now, it was blood. Metallic, sharp smelling, I could taste it in my mouth. The genjutsu was gone now… I could see faces frozen in to silent screams; flesh hacked apart in to bloody chunks. The white of bone, torn muscles and twitching ligaments were everywhere. Some faces were scarred to the point where you couldn't make out any physical features. I stared for a second, sank to my knees, and retched my stomach out. I felt sick, twisted.

Is this how the Akatsuki would want me to feel? They would want me to be proud, but… Could I help it?

No.

I realized too late the crumbling of the building; saw too late the building material falling down on me, blocking the air from my face. A large chunk of falling brickwork hit me in the head sharply, sparing me –temporarily- from the pain that would follow.

The last thing I heard was the woman's voice:

"If she doesn't survive this, she's not worth our time."

And then the blackness swirled in torrents in my vision, and I let myself fall with the building.


End file.
